Afghan Biographies

Afghan Newspapers

Name

Afghan Newspapers

Ethnic backgr.

Date of birth

Function/Grade

state owned and independent Newspapers

History and Biodata

The principal daily newspapers are the state-ownedAnis, Eslah Islah, Watandaran and Kabul Times and the privately ownedAfghanistan Group of Newspapers which includes Daily Outlook Afghanistan (the first and the only independent English Newspaper throughout the history of Afghanistan) and The Daily Afghanistan in local languages of Dari and Pashto, Eradeh, Hewad, Ittefaq-e Islam, and Shari'at. The circulation of independent print publications has been confined primarily to the Kabul region. About 400 publications are now registered in the country.(2009).

The state owned newspapers, focused on government activities and policies, did not carry stories on social issues, said Siddiqullah Tawhidi, head of Nai, an organisation that supports free Afghan media. Considering the dailies the government's mouthpieces, he said they were published according to the dictates of the Ministry of Information and Culture. Repeated publication of articles in the papers has translated into a loss of readership. Previously, the newspapers did have a variety of articles, but now they publish handouts from the state-controlled Bakhtar news agency, according to Habibullah Rafi, a writer and member of the National Science Academy.(20111014)

Hasht-e Sobh and Mandegar are privately-owned newspapers close to the opposition and to secular positions, both are mainly published in Dari but also feature articles in Pashto; Daily Afghanistan is a Dari language newspaper sometimes considered close to Mohaqqeq’s political party, Hezb-e Wahdat-e Melli-ye Mardom, while Daily Outlook is an English language publication connected to the previous, and mainly meant for embassies and foreign companies; Weesa usually exposes religiously conservative ideas also tinged with nationalism; Sarnewesht reflects the views of a group with a former connection to Hezb-e Wahdat and a presently more fundamentalist religious stance (both these two newspapers are published in mixed Pashto/Dari); finally, Hewad is the only state-owned among these, and is published mainly in Pashto (another state-owned newspaper, Anis, is in turn mainly in Dari).